3D Realms seeking crowdfunding to get back into first-person shooters

Earth No More project revived on new "player-equity" site Gambitious.

After over a decade of work on Duke Nukem Forever ended with the unceremonious firing of the game's development team (and a critically panned release under replacement developer Gearbox), it appears that storied PC developer 3D Realms has finished licking its wounds. The company is gearing up to get back into the first-person shooter game, seeking crowdfunding to revive a previously shuttered project called Earth No More.

3D Realms had been working on Earth No More with Finnish developer Recoil Games (known for side-scrolling shooter Rochard) since the game was announced way back in 2007. The game, which focuses on a small band of humans struggling to survive after an environmental apocalypse, even had a release date set in 2009 before being put on hold later that year, amid a copyright infringement lawsuit over the concept.

While 3D Realms revived the project back in June, the under-the-radar effort wasn't widely noticed until today with the official launch of Gambitious, a new game-focused crowdfunding site. Gambitious differs from similar efforts like Kickstarter by letting investors have a small equity stake in the eventual profits of a game, providing them with more incentive to ensure success of the efforts (though current SEC rules currently prevent US citizens from taking part in such profit-sharing). 3D Realms founder Scott Miller sits on the advisory board for Gambitious, and says he sees the site as a brave new model for the game industry. "Why just donate to projects when you can become an owner? The game industry just got a lot more interesting."

3D Realms hasn't actually started accepting donations for Earth No More on the site just yet, but gamers eager to see the company come back can follow the project on the site to stay up to date on its progress.

Kyle Orland / Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in Pittsburgh, PA.